Hey Gang!
Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I’m kicking off this week with my weekly recap of our worship service at St. Simons Community Church as a part of the weekly “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com.
Our Sunday went pretty good. I have to admit, it was one of those Sunday mornings where, for whatever reason, I really struggled to be excited and passionate. I prayed, I played, I sang, but just felt somewhat apathetic. I hate leading worship in that condition because I always fear it will carry over and seem inauthentic. The truth is, we can’t always rely on feelings. I just felt tired and disinterested. By the second service I felt much more like myself and seemed to be more connected. I suppose that sometimes the “sacrifice of praise” is just that — a sacrifice. We made it and offer it up even when it doesn’t feel so authentic.
Now that I’ve confessed and made myself vulnerable for the entire world to see, let’s talk about the music!
Our walk-in song was “Here For You” (B).
Our opening song was an oldie, but a goodie – “Your Grace is Enough” (G). I have always loved this song and I heard it on the radio this past week and it helped me decide to put it back in the playlist.
After our announcements and welcome we had a 2-song set of worship starting with my arrangement of the hymn, “Blessed Assurance” (D) which moved into “10,000 Reasons” (G). We’ve discussed the Key of that song before in previous posts – it’s high, but singable for the guys on melody and creates some wonderful opportunities for the women to sing the lower harmonies.
Our closing song was another older one, “Center” (D). I struggled to find a closing song that seemed to “fit” the message and finally quit striving for a perfect fit and looked for a song that would lead people to a response of dedication and surrender. The other positive thing about “Center” is how versatile the arrangement can be. You essentially have 3 segments, the Chorus, Verse, and Bridge, and you can easily go in and out of them without a fixed arrangement. This is always helpful for us when we know we’re at the end of a service where timing may be an issue.
That’s about it for this week. It was encouraging seeing a lot of people responding to God at the altar during our 11:00 AM service this week. It made me want to just keep worshiping.
Be sure and checkout all the other setlists and reviews on TheWorshipCommunity.Com and share some comments below about your services.
For the Kingdom,
Fred
We began with the Tommy Walker arrangement of “O God Our Help in Ages Past.” Our congregation & musicians really enjoy the re-imaginings of hymns. Then introduced “You Are God Alone [Not a God],” segued into “Above All,” and then finished with “THanks Be to Our God [Travis Cottrell].” We have 2 services, and in the first, we had a time of corporate prayer around the altar after “Thanks.” It’s a smaller service, so everyone, including my techs, came up to gather around the altar. Right as we started the second service, I realized that the lyrics of the 3rd verse of “Thanks” are an invitation/confession of sorts, so we shifted a bit. The pastor came up after Above All & let the people know we were going to have a time of prayer, and he wanted everyone to gather around the altar, so as we sang, people came forward – about 3/4 of the congregation. Had a really powerful time of prayer/intercession together. Then as people returned to their seats, we sang the chorus again “Hallelujah, everlasting songs will rise for all You’ve done. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, thanks be to our God!”
It was one of those moments that you step out & pray you’re listening to God and not your own ideas.
Angela
This sounds really powerful, and a great way to adapt-on-the-fly. I try to prayerfully think through and play through our setlist before our main rehearsal to catch some of those moments, but many times, it’s just not recognized until you’re in the service with the dynamic of the people, their response, and the pastor’s message. Sounds like you have a wonderful team who will follow the lead and make changes. Beautiful!